The Omnivore's Dilemma

A Natural History of Four Meals

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What should we have for dinner?" To one degree or another this simple question assails any creature faced with a wide choice of things to eat. Anthropologists call it the omnivore's dilemma. Choosing from among the countless potential foods nature offers, humans have had to learn what is safe, and what isn't--which mushrooms should be avoided, for example, and which berries we can enjoy. Today, as America confronts what can only be described as a national eating disorder, the omnivore's dilemma has returned with an atavistic vengeance. The cornucopia of the modern American supermarket and fast-food outlet has thrown us back on a bewildering landscape where we once again have to worry about which of those tasty-looking morsels might kill us. At the same time we're realizing that our food choices also have profound implications for the health of our environment. The Omnivore's Dilemma is bestselling author Michael Pollan's brilliant and eye-opening exploration of these little-known but vitally important dimensions of eating in America.

Pollan has divided The Omnivore's Dilemma into three parts, one for each of the food chains that sustain us: industrialized food, alternative or "organic" food, and food people obtain by dint of their own hunting, gathering, or gardening. Pollan follows each food chain literally from the ground up to the table, emphasizing our dynamic coevolutionary relationship with the species we depend on. He concludes each section by sitting down to a meal--at McDonald's, at home with his family sharing a dinner from Whole Foods, and in a revolutionary "beyond organic" farm in Virginia. For each meal he traces the provenance of everything consumed, revealing the hidden components we unwittingly ingest and explaining how our taste for particular foods reflects our environmental and biological inheritance.

We are indeed what we eat-and what we eat remakes the world. A society of voracious and increasingly confused omnivores, we are just beginning to recognize the profound consequences of the simplest everyday food choices, both for ourselves and for the natural world. The Omnivore's Dilemma is a long-overdue book and one that will become known for bringing a completely fresh perspective to a question as ordinary and yet momentous as What shall we have for dinner?

A few facts and figures from The Omnivore's Dilemma :

Of the 38 ingredients it takes to make a McNugget, there are at least 13 that are derived from corn. 45 different menu items at Mcdonald's are made from corn.

One in every three American children eats fast food every day.

One in every five American meals today is eaten in the car.

The food industry burns nearly a fifth of all the petroleum consumed in the United States--more than we burn with our cars and more than any other industry consumes.

It takes ten calories of fossil fuel energy to deliver one calorie of food energy to an American plate.

A single strawberry contains about five calories. To get that strawberry from a field in California to a plate on the east coast requires 435 calories of energy.

Industrial fertilizer and industrial pesticides both owe their existence to the conversion of the World War II munitions industry to civilian uses--nerve gases became pesticides, and ammonium nitrate explosives became nitrogen fertilizers.

Pollan gives us a massive amount of info about where our food comes from and how our food production systems sustain themselves (or not...).

His writing is entertaining, anecdotal, and matter-of-factual, rather than alarmist or dooms-dayish. Pollan's "Omnivore's Dilemma" is a must read for anyone pondering about what makes an ethical food choice for good health - both for the good of our own bodies and that of planet Earth.

It's not till towards the end that Pollan turns seriously to the subject posed in his title... the omnivore's dilemma. The book really gets to the heart of things at this point. His thoughts on animal cruelty, especially, shed a lot of light on this highly fraught subject.

All in all, I thought this an excellent nonfiction book with plenty of food for thought. But then, I'm a foodie...

This book gives great insight into the food system in the US. It is so easy to read and it never seems like the author is preaching to you about what you should or should not eat - just giving you the facts and his opinion.

The facts in this book frighten me, but I think it's a good fear. I've certainly become far more conscious about what I eat and where it comes from. I appreciate that Pollan says he isn't perfect, either, but this is the way our food system is. It makes it feel less like preaching and more like an honest layout.

Excellent, easy-to-read book on the state of the North American food system, the disengagement of most from how food winds up on our plates, and encouragement on how it is possible to eat healthfully and ethically! I really enjoyed this book, and found the dissection of the industrial and organic food systems quite interesting. Also, as a vegetarian, I found the discussion of moral conflicts on eating animals, whether farmed or wild very relevant. Highly recommend this book.

fastace911
Jan 28, 2012

Great insight into the food industry from the beginning to the end of the food chain. It's amazing that the author Micheal Pollan personally experienced every moment of the book. He provided great history (sometimes overly elaborate), but interesting nonetheless. Shocking revelations about the meat industry and the business of organics.